Gone too fast

My Grandpa at the farm passed away last night. My aunt went to check on them this morning and he wouldn't wake up.

I missed thanksgiving with him, and that upsets me most of all.

Even though we weren't that close, my grandparents at the farm are some of the most life defining people I can think of. I spend my whole childhood there. anyone who was even remotely close to me as a child knew of the farm, and had spent time there.

I learned to swim in the river there. We spend christmases there. There were bonfires, summer fun, winter snow machine rides, getting lost in the bush with my grandfather and trying to start a fire with my aunt.

I learned to waterski at the farm. I drove a boat there. I drove a truck for the first time at the age of 13, helping my grandpa load potatoes from the garden, even though it wsa really just riding the brakes. We picked peas and carrots and beans and corn for hours in the summer.

We went blueberry picking. I ate asperagus for the first time there.

Santa came to the farm when we were really little, always when my dad was in the bathroom.

We collected rocks and smashed them on my grandpa's anvil with his sludgehammers. WE fed sheep (a love of my granpas) from beer bottles with nipples on them. We saw baby cows and baby pigs and baby chickens and baby sheep.

We went for tractor rides and boat rides in the summer, and canoeing and snowmachining and exploring.

My grandpa taught me about different kinds of trees, and how to make a whistle out of a green branch with a pocket knife. He let me help plant the garden.

He made me a cedar chest.
He took me for lunch in October because I drove him and my gramma to the hospital for the morning. he sent me $20 for gas and my time becuase I drove him to radiation once a few weeks ago, just before thanksgiving. That was the last time I saw him.

I feel like a part of my childhood has died along with him. I didn't think it would be this hard.

I love you Grandpa. I hope you are free of pain and sorrow. Don't worry, we'll look after Gramma well.